Polk, James Knox

Life Span
to
    Full name
    James Knox Polk
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Origins
    Slave State
    No. of Spouses
    1
    No. of Children
    0
    Family
    Samuel Polk (father), Jane Knox (mother), Sarah Childress (wife, 1824)
    Education
    University of North Carolina
    Occupation
    Politician
    Attorney or Judge
    Relation to Slavery
    Slaveholder
    Political Parties
    Democratic
    Government
    President
    Polk Administration (1845-49)
    US House of Representatives
    Governor
    State legislature

    James Knox Polk (Congressional Biographical Directory)

    Reference
    POLK, James Knox, (brother of William Hawkins Polk), a Representative from Tennessee and 11th President of the United States; born near Little Sugar Creek, Mecklenburg County, N.C., November 2, 1795; moved to Tennessee in 1806 with his parents, who settled in what later became Maury County; attended the common schools and was tutored privately; graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1818; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1820 and commenced practice in Columbia, Tenn.; chief clerk of the state senate 1821-1823; member of the state house of representatives 1823-1825; elected as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth through the Twenty-fourth Congresses and reelected as a Democrat to the Twenty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1825-March 3, 1839); chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Twenty-third Congress); Speaker of the House of Representatives (Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses); did not seek renomination in 1838 having become a candidate for governor; governor of Tennessee 1839-1841; elected as a Democrat as President of the United States in 1844; inaugurated on March 4, 1845, and served until March 3, 1849; declined to be a candidate for renomination; died in Nashville, Tenn., June 15, 1849; interment within the grounds of the state capitol.
    “Polk, James Knox,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000409.
    Chicago Style Entry Link
    Bergeron, Paul H. The Presidency of James K. Polk. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1987. view record
    Cutler, Wayne. "Jackson, Polk, and Johnson: Defenders of the Moral Economy." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 54, no. 3 (1995): 178-189. view record
    Dillon, Merton L. "Polk, Expansionism, and Morality." Reviews in American History 2, no. 3 (1974): 389-394. view record
    Dusinberre, William. Slavemaster President: The Double Career of James Polk. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. view record
    Gilley, B. H. "'Polk's War' and the Louisiana Press." Louisiana History 20, no. 1 (1979): 5-24. view record
    Graebner, Norman A. "Lessons of the Mexican War." Pacific Historical Review 47, no. 3 (1978): 325-342. view record
    Graebner, Norman A. "The Mexican War: A Study in Causation." Pacific Historical Review 49, no. 3 (1980): 405-426. view record
    Klassen, Teri. "Polk's Fancy: Quiltmaking, Patriotism, and Gender in the Mexican War Era." Uncoverings 27 (2006): 59-89. view record
    Lee, Jr., Ronald C. "Justifying Empire: Pericles, Polk, and a Dilemma of Democratic Leadership." Polity 34, no. 4 (2002): 503-531.  view record
    Neely, Mark E., Jr. "War and Partisanship: What Lincoln Learned from James K. Polk." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 74, no. 3 (1981): 199-216. view record
    Nelson, Anna Kasten. "Secret Agents and Security Leaks: President Polk and the Mexican War." Journalism Quarterly 52, no. 1 (1975): 9-14. view record
    Polk, James K. Polk: The Diary of a President, 1845-1849, Covering the Mexican War, the Acquisition of Oregon, and the Conquest of California and the Southwest.  Edited by Allan Nevins.  New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1929. view record
    Schroeder, John H. Mr. Polk's War: American Opposition and Dissent, 1846-1848. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973. view record
    Seigenthaler, John. James K. Polk. New York: Times Books, 2004. view record
    Shattan, Joseph. "One-Term Wonder." The American Spectator 29 (October 1996): 32-35. view record
    Stenberg, Richard R. "Failure of Polk's Mexican War Intrigue of 1845." Pacific Historical Review 4 (March 1935): 39-68. view record
    Stenberg, Richard R. "Polk and Fremont, 1845-1846." Pacific Historical Review 7, no. 3 (1938): 211-227. view record
    Winders, Richard Bruce. Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. view record
    How to Cite This Page: "Polk, James Knox," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/6415.